Drifting
by crimsonpuddle
Summary: There's just one thing left for Owen and Toshiko to do. Post Series 2 drabble. Kind of angsty, kind of fluff, Toshiko/Owen. Spoilers for Series 2 finale.


Disclaimer: Guess who doesn't own Torchwood?! Me! And every other person on the planet except for RTD. God, he's lucky. I mean, he gets two shows and I get none. How unfair is that?

Hey, look, it's my first Torchwood fanfiction! Yay! There are kind of spoilers for Exit Wounds, but only the deaths, not the plot.  
This story has nothing to do with the episode 'Adrift', it's just the title of the drabble. Promise.

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**Drifting**

Toshiko walked around the hub aimlessly. If you could call it walking, that is. The only way she could describe it was that she was kind of, drifting. She had control over where she went, just not over her feet. She seemed to float gracefully across the floor, never knocking into anything; never falling. She usually followed Gwen or Ianto around, sometimes begging them to turn around and find her trailing behind them. But she knew that could never happen.

She had been confused when it first happened. She remembered dying - that bit was simple - but what came next had been complicated. She remembered waking up, and seeing her blood trailing down the stairs. How she had almost fainted at the sight of it, and then turned around to see her own body lying dead on the floor, and actually _had_ fainted at the sight of that. At least, she thought so. Was it possible to faint if you were a ghost? That's one question she never thought she'd be asking herself five weeks ago. All she knew was that she had woken up later in Owen's cold, deadened arms, with him looking down at her with that stupid smirk of his. That smirk that she loved.

She tilted her head to the side, watching Gwen finishing her latest load of paperwork. She moved around to the opposite side of the desk, watching her carefully as she worked. Ianto walked up to the desk and placed a cup of coffee on the table, walking straight through Toshiko. She gasped as she felt the cool, unreal sensation, and Ianto looked back to where she stood, shivering. Gwen looked up from her work and smiled uneasily at Ianto. He nodded back, but neither spoke. Then he walked away, and Toshiko turned back to Gwen.

She looked down at her hands and brought them up to her face, wondering about the extent of her existence. She touched the edge of the desk and her fingers fell straight through. She paused, then held them over the coffee cup and lowered them gently. Nothing. She tried to pick up the cup, making a fist with her hand as she grabbed at it frustratedly, tears threatening to fall from her empty eyes.

Gwen reached out for the cup and Toshiko felt the connection - just for a second - as Gwen's warm, living hand brushed against Toshiko's cold, dead one. She looked up into Gwen's eyes and Gwen's looked back into hers. She smiled - a real smile, not like the fake ones she had been smiling at Jack, pretending all was well - and for a second, the most exciting second she'd felt in the land of the Dead, she was sure Gwen could see her. If her heart was working, it would have been beating faster than ever before, and her face broke into a smile as she saw Gwen looking directly into her eyes.

"What're you smiling at?" Ianto asked quietly, but Gwen didn't answer. Her eyes flickered over Toshiko's face, and the ghost of Toshiko could have sworn her heart was beating again.

'_Just a second longer.'_ Toshiko pleaded, though with no reasoning behind her wish. _'Just a moment longer and I'll be back.'_

But then Jack slammed his office door shut and walked down the steps to Gwen's desk, and she looked down at her paperwork once more. Toshiko felt the smile slide off her face and her heart turn to stone once more.

'_So close.'_ she thought miserably, turning away to look at Owen, who was standing across the room.

"You know," he said in a whisper, for fear of being overheard - though by who, Toshiko wasn't sure. "You keep expecting to be brought back, but you've just got to face it. We're gone, Tosh."

Toshiko felt tears slide down her cheeks.

"That's alright for you to say." she said childishly, floating over to Owen. "You've done this bit before."

Owen smirked. "Well…doesn't make it any easier."

Toshiko smiled weakly, and Owen took her hand. "Ready?" he asked her, and she looked around the room.

"Yeah." she whispered, and as if it had been there all along, a pure white shape unfolded in front of them. "And Owen?" she added, squeezing his hand as he edged towards the light. "Whatever it is out there…promise you won't leave me?"

She felt stupid saying it - weak and pathetic. But he seemed to understand.

"Don't be afraid, Tosh." he repeated to her, for what must have been the seventh time that day. "I was at first. But you've got to be strong." A single tear flew down his cheek as he spoke, and he walked forwards with her towards the light.

"Just be strong." he repeated, over and over again, and they clutched each other's hands until they had passed through the light. And then everything was dark.

Gwen flinched, dropping her pen, and looked up to a spot a few metres in front of her desk. Ianto froze suddenly as he brought Jack a cup of coffee, spilling drops on the floor. Jack dropped his pile of folders to the ground and gasped, sensing a sudden flow of energy. The levels shown on Toshiko's Rift-activity detecting program flew off the scale, just for a moment. But no one noticed.

Then a breeze wafted across the room, making Gwen's papers fly off the desk and blowing Ianto's hair up. They looked at each other, and after a moment, they smiled.

The omen hovering above them had vanished, after five long weeks of suffering.

They were free once more - free to smile without guilt, free to sleep without nightmares, free to live without ghosts.

They were Torchwood. And there was a hell of a lot of work to do.

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Yes, there most certainly was. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, and be sure to press that little 'Go' button in the corner on your way out. Or chibi!Dead!Owen and chibi!Dead!Toshiko may find their ways into your homes. :evil laugh: Just kidding!

Thank-you!


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